Sir Charles Grave Hudson, 1st Baronet (3 April 1730 – 24 October 1813) married well and became the owner of Wanlip Hall in Leicestershire. He was a director of the South Sea Company and became a

High Sheriff of Leicestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Leicestershire, United Kingdom. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

in 1783. He became a baronet on 21 June 1791.

Life

Wanlip Hall Leicestershire Palmer Family

Hudson was born in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

in 1730 to Joseph Hudson, a Dutch consul, and Sarah (born Plowman). Charles was the second and last child and only son.The Baronetage of England: Or The History of the English Baronets
William Betham, Vol $, retrieved 28 June 2014 His elder sister, Jane Catharine, married in 1769

George Keate George Keate (1729–1797) was an English poet and writer. He was a versatile author, also known as an artist, who travelled and became a friend of Voltaire. Life He was son of George Keate of Isleworth, Middlesex, who married Rachel Kawolski ...

, poet, writer, and friend of

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

. Their daughter, his niece, was Georgiana Keate Henderson, a painter. Hudson was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1757 as a ""curious enquirer into natural philosophy" Hudson married Catherine Susanna Palmer, daughter of Henry Palmer of Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire. Catherine was the eldest of four daughters, all co-heiresses; as part of the

marriage settlement A marriage settlement in England was a historic arrangement whereby, most commonly and in its simplest form, a trust of land or other assets was established jointly by the parents of a bride and bridegroom. The trustees were established as legal ow ...

, Hudson had to make payments to his wife's sisters to balance the inheritance from his father-in-law. Hudson extended and improved this imposing building, originally constructed about 1750 beside the

River Soar The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands and is the principal river of Leicestershire. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north through Leicest ...

.Wanlip Hall
European Magazine, 1803, p33, retrieved 1 July 2014 The couple had eight children. Catherine died and Hudson re-married. Hudson had interest in slave plantations in Surinam.The Palmer family of Wanlip
Leics.gov.uk, retrieved 6 July 2014 He was also a director of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

. He became a

in 1784Topographical History of the County of Leicester and a baronet in 1791. Hudson died in

Wanlip Wanlip is a small village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, with a population measured at 305 at the 2011 census. It is a countryside village, north of Birstall, and west of Watermead Country Park and the River So ...

in 1813.

Legacy

In August 1804, one of Hudson's daughters, Harriet, married Sir John Richardson, a lawyer who became a judge. One of the offspring of this union was Sarah Harriet, who in 1839 married George Selwyn; they spent most of their married life in New Zealand, where he was the first bishop and she helped build up the structures of the Anglican Church there. Hudson's son Charles Thomas succeeded to the title in 1813, taking the name of his maternal grandfather, Palmer.Obituary
The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume 97, Part 1 The 2nd baronet successfully challenged his father's 1812 will; the

Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales)#Civil Division, Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales a ...

considered that his request that his executors pass on his wealth (2,500 pounds) to the children that were surviving 28 years after his death was too vague and remote. Caroline Harriet Palmer was a daughter of the 2nd baronet. Several years after her cousin, she too emigrated to New Zealand, having married Rev. Charles Abraham, later

Bishop of Wellington The Diocese of Wellington is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area between the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand up to the area of Mount Ru ...

. There she became a noted artistCaroline Abraham
NZ encyclopedia, retrieved 28 June 2014 and defender of the rights of the Maori people. Wanlip Hall remained in the Palmer family and his baronetcy was passed down via the Palmer line. The hall was demolished in the twentieth century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, Charles Grave 1730 births 1813 deaths People from Wanlip People from Tunis High Sheriffs of Leicestershire Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Fellows of the Royal Society